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Family Recipe Friday – Shepherd’s Pie

In my younger years I could always count on Sunday’s to be pretty familiar. We would get up and get dressed in our Sunday best. The family would head to church in the morning, upon returning we would have a brunch of  bacon and eggs. In the afternoon, my Mom would beginning preparing the Sunday dinner, roast Beef, mashed potatoes and corn.

Inevitably on Monday, the leftover roast beef would be put through the mincer, topped with the leftover corn and mashed potatoes, to create one of my favourite childhood dishes, Shepherd’s Pie. To be quite honest, I preferred Monday’s dinner over Sunday’s dinner.

Shepherd’s pie brings it history from England and Scotland when potatoes became a staple of the UK. Not to be mistaken with cottage Pie, Shepherd’s was initially made with leftover lamb, cottage pie was historically made with beef but any livestock found roaming outside the cottage walls was acceptable. In the UK, this distinction still stands, however, in North America, Shepherd’s Pie basically became a way to use up leftovers and create another meal, regardless of the type of meat.  

More recently Shepherd’s pie is made with ground beef rather then roast of beef minced. My daughter prefers the ground beef, however I am still partial to the leftover version of Shepherd’s Pie. Most recently I made Shepherd’s Pie with mashed sweet potatoes and grated cheese on top, a real winner.

Shepherd’s Pie
  • 2 cups of leftover roast beef, minced or 1 lb of ground beef cooked. My Mom always added a little of the leftover gravy to add a little more flavour and moisture to the meat.
  • Leftover corn, spread on top of beef
  • Mashed potatoes approximately, 3 cups, my mom always topped the potatoes with a couple of dabs of butter on top.
  • Bake at 375F for about 45 minutes.
My Mom always served the Shepherd’s Pie with gravy on the side.